1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated program recording of the type wherein scheduling instructions are relied upon by a recording device to schedule a future program recording.
2. Background Art
Digital video recorders (DVRs) are one type of personal video recorder (PVR) commonly used to record programs. An electronic programming guide (EPG) or other application, operating either on the DVR or another device, such as a settop box (STB), can be used to facilitate scheduling DVR recordings. The guides include navigable user interfaces, typically partitioned into a grid arrangement where each program is identified according to time and channel. A user can search through the interfaces to find a program of interest, and if necessary, select an option to record the program.
The guide includes recording information necessary for the DVR to schedule a recording of the selected program, such as the channel showing the program and the time period for which the channel is to be recorded. The guides have a limited date range of information in that they are unable to identify programs occurring beyond some point in the future, typically a couple of weeks. This can be problematic if a user desires to record a program that is not included within the guide, such as a new program that is not currently scheduled into the guide.
Some guides include a user directed option where the user is able to manually schedule a recording of the program by entering the necessary recording information. This process, however, requires the user to execute a number of operations and to have knowledge of the time period and channel to be recorded. If the time period and channel of the program is not known to the user or is not yet scheduled by a service provider for broadcast, the user is unable to manually schedule the recording.